'Sometimes called Wind Walkers for their ability to command the wind, unlike their human rulers, the Feng people have bark faces, carved limbs, arms of braided branches, and hair of needle threads. Bound by duty and tradition, Liu Lufeng, the eldest princess of the Feng royalty, is the next bride to the human king. The negotiation of bridewealth is the only way to stop the expansion of the humans so that the Feng can keep their lands, people, and culture intact. As the eldest, Lufeng should be the next in line to lead the people of Feng, and in the past, that made her sisters disposable. Thankful that her youngest sister, Chuiliu, is too young for a sacrificial marriage, she steps in with plans to kill the king to finally stop the marriages.
'But when she starts to uncover the truth about her peoples' origins and realizes Chuiliu will never be safe from the humans, she must learn to let go of duty and tradition, choose her allies carefully, and risk the unknown in order to free her family and shape her own fate.'
A Palace Near the Wind is the first novella in a duology that takes readers to a fantastical world filled with interesting characters, imaginative races, unique locations, and plot intrigue that manages to pack a surprising amount into just 200 pages that will have you wondering just how author Ai Jiang was able to make it all work as well as she does.
The narrative follows Princess Liu Lufeng, a member of the Feng people, a race of people with wooden skin, hair made of thorns, and a deep attachment to nature. The Feng people are ruled over harshly by the humans, whose king takes Feng royalty as brides. With Lufeng having been chosen to be the next sacrificial bride she decides not to stick with tradition, not to become a willing sexual slave, but instead chooses to free her people from future oppression by murdering the king. However, upon arriving at the castle Lufeng learns that many of her preconceptions about the people she finds there are wrong, and she becomes faced with some difficult decisions.
There's part of my that wonders why this book is a novella duology, as 200 pages really doesn't feel like enough, despite just how much Jiang gives us here. Doubling that to a complete 400 page book would feel absolutely fine to me, but that could also be down to me having gotten to the end of the book and immediately wanting to read more, so my complaint isn't really justified as I was just going through story withdrawal.
Despite the short length, a lot of attention is given over to the world-building in A Palace Near the Wind and you come away thinking that Jiang has some very clear, very cleverly thought out ideas for her setting that if you're anything like me you'll want to see played out over several more books.
It does feel like Jiang is exploring some very clear themes at times too. There seems to be a nature vs technology/modernisation narrative that could be subtle enough that people only take at a surface, fantasy level, but there were times where it felt like the book was also looking at these themes through the lens of colonialism and the erasure of indigenous peoples, which isn't something that I've seen all too often and was very happy to see here.
The book also has a very anti-meat stance too, with descriptions of eating meat that are written in very grotesque ways, and it does come across as very skewed towards being pro-veganism or vegetarian. I will acknowledge that veganism is probably the most moral stance when it comes to food, but I do also find when people try to push it in such ways, trying to villainise meat consumption, or attempts to make those who eat meat feel guilty it can just strengthen opposition to veganism, and further animosity.
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